REPRESENTING JEWISH COMMUNITIES IN 100 COUNTRIES ACROSS SIX CONTINENTS

Ronald S. Lauder

President, World Jewish Congress

International philanthropist, investor, art collector, and former public servant, Ronald S. Lauder has served as president of the World Jewish Congress since June 2007. President Lauder also demonstrates his deep commitment to his Judaism through a wide range of other philanthropic endeavors that reach around the world.

As president of the WJC, Amb. Lauder has met with countless heads of state, prime ministers and government representatives in advancing those causes that are of most concern to Jews and Jewish communities internationally. He firmly believes in the importance of supporting Israel, especially in times when the State, and its citizens are under attack, whilst also encouraging and aiding the development of vibrant Jewish communities around the world.

From 1983 to 1986, Ronald S. Lauder served as United States Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for European and NATO Affairs. In 1986, he was appointed by President Reagan as US Ambassador to Austria. During his posting there he built strong diplomatic bonds between the two countries while personally repudiating Kurt Waldheim who became Austrian President.

Amb. Lauder’s experience in Austria heightened his deep appreciation of, and his commitment to, his Jewish heritage. Afterwards, he sought to revitalize Jewish life across central and eastern Europe in communities that had been devastated by the Holocaust, and remained suppressed under Communism. In 1987, he established The Ronald S. Lauder Foundation, which now supports 37 Jewish schools, camps and community centers in Austria, Belarus, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Ukraine. Amb. Lauder’s efforts have awakened thousands of Jewish youngsters to their Jewish heritage.

Amb. Lauder also created an International Student Exchange Program between Jewish high school students in New York City and Vienna, which has now grown to include students from Berlin, Budapest, Prague, St. Petersburg, Sofia and Warsaw.

In 1997, Amb. Lauder was elected as President of the Jewish National Fund and after a successful 10-year tenure became Chairman of the Board. From 1999 until 2001 Amb. Lauder served as Chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.

Amb. Lauder’s passion for art and his commitment to justice led him to create and head the Committee for Art Recovery that has helped establish international laws to recover art stolen by the Nazis during World War II. The Committee continues to help retrieve important paintings and deliver them to the heirs of their rightful owners.

In 2008, Amb. Lauder was elected as President of the World Jewish Restitution Organization.

President Lauder also serves as Chairman of the Jewish Heritage Council; Director of the International Board of Governors of the International Society for YadVashem; Member of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council; Member of the Board of Directors of the Jewish Theological Seminary; Member of the Board of Directors of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee; Member of the Board of Trustees of the Anti-Defamation League Foundation; Member of the Board of Trustees of The Abraham Fund; Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Sakharov Archives at Brandeis University and Member of the International Board of Governors of the Tel Aviv Museum. Amb. Lauder has been a major supporter of The Shalem Center since its founding. He is also an Honorary Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Museum of Modern Art.

The United Kingdom was hit by another terrorist attack. At least seven people were killed and several dozen wounded in the capital London on Saturday night when a van drove into pedestrians on London Bridge.

WJC President Ronald S. Lauder welcomed a resolution adopted by the European Parliament which urges all EU member states to combat anti-Semitism. "If Jews are forced to leave, it would be a disaster for Europe," said Lauder.

At least 26 people were killed and 25 wounded Friday in an attack by gunmen on a bus carrying Coptic Christians south of Cairo. Local media reported witnesses saying that between eight and 10 gunmen carried out the attack.

The FIFA Congress in Manama, Bahrain on Thursday instead accepted a proposal by the organization's president, Gianni Infantino, to refer the FIFA Council the controversial issue regarding Israeli soccer teams based in West Bank settlements.

In his foreword, World Jewish Congress (WJC) President Ronald S. Lauder writes that “this book reminds us not only what the WJC did in the past, but why the Jewish people need this vital organization now more than ever and will continue to need it in the future.”

Lauder expressed confidence that the new French leader will continue to have close and positive ties with the French Jewish community and fight all forms of anti-Semitism, whether from the extreme left or the extreme right.

According to 'Haaretz', Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged the president of world soccer's governing body FIFA to remove a Palestinian motion to impose sanctions against Israeli soccer teams.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres addressed the opening dinner of the World Jewish Congress Plenary Assembly on Sunday, pledging to delegates: "As secretary general of the United Nations, I will be on the front lines in the fight against anti-Semitism."

Amid mounting concerns about the bias against Israel at the United Nations, António Guterres will speak to the more than 600 representatives of Jewish communities in over 90 countries who are gathering in New York next week for the Plenary Assembly of the World Jewish Congress.

When talking to Ronald S. Lauder, one quickly gets the impression that his combination of urbanity and insight makes him exactly the right person to speak for the world Jewish community in these troubled times. Lauder may be a worldly diplomat, but he is ready to fight.

Frauke Petry, the leader of the far-right Alternative für Deutschland, claimed that "in times of illegal anti-Semitic migration to Germany" her party was "one of the few political guarantors of Jewish life."

United Nations Secretary General António Guterres met with World Jewish Congress President Ronald S. Lauder this week and reiterated an earlier comment that there is an absolute tie between the Jewish people and the land of Israel.

In an interview with the newspaper 'Die Welt', World Jewish Congress President Ronald S. Lauder criticized the far-right, populist German party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), which he called "a disgrace for Germany."

The head of the World Jewish Congress (WJC) on Monday expressed outrage over the terror attack at a mosque in Quebec City, Canada. At least six people were murdered by two masked gunmen on Sunday night, and eight wounded.

WJC President Ronald S. Lauder writes: 'In deferring to the Security Council, the US has allowed the counterproductive bias of the United Nations to gain the upper hand, at least in the short term, posing yet another obstacle to a lasting Israeli-Palestinian peace.'

WJC President Ronald Lauder welcomed Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon’s recognition of the United Nations' disproportionate stance on Israel and his demand that Hamas renounce the use of violence and recognize Israel's right to exist.

A Munich Court ruled on Thursday that Cornelius Gurlitt, son of Hitler’s art preferred dealer Hildebrand Gurlitt, was of sound mind when he wrote his will bequeathing his extensive art collection to a Swiss museum in April 2014.

WJC President Ronald S. Lauder called on Texas A&M University to insist on the cancelation of an event with Richard Spencer, a leader of the so-called ‘alt-right’ movement in the United States, on its campus.

Speaking in the Swiss city of Basel where the first Zionist congresses were held after 1897, the World Jewish Congress president urged the next generation of Jewish leaders to be like modern Zionism’s founding father.

The World Jewish Congress has acquired a security alert system to enable Jewish communities around the world to communicate efficiently and immediately in the event of emergency anti-Semitic or terror situations.

For the Jewish people, no place is as holy as the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, a sacred site where memory, tradition, and faith are sown in the very soil, says the WJC president in reaction to the UNESCO vote.

WJC President Ronald S. Lauder condemned a vote by the Executive Board of UNESCO as “shameful” and said it openly downplayed the Jewish connection to Judaism’s holiest site, the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

"President Santos thoroughly deserves this award. He really is a peace-maker," World Jewish Congress President Ronald Lauder said in reaction to the news that the Colombian leader was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace.

Last week, the World Jewish Congress commemorated the 75th anniversary of Babi Yar, together the Ukrainian government. Some no doubt question the purpose of such memorials. But not remembering is the first step in making new atrocities possible.

President Rodrigo Duterte apologized to Jews worldwide after his remarks drawing comparisons between his anti-drug war and the murder of Jews in the Holocaust sparked shock and outrage, including from WJC President Ronald S. Lauder.

Ronald S. Lauder condemned the statement of President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines who praised Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler and said he would be happy to slaughter drug addicts in his country just as Hitler had slaughtered the Jews.

A delegation of the World Jewish Congress led by Ronald S. Lauder was received by Pope Francis at the Vatican. In his address, the pope spoke about the challenge to promote peace in the world and about the refugee crisis.

Israel's president will n international group of participants at Babi Yaar that will include World Jewish Congress President Ronald Lauder, who will head a 100-member delegation of the WJC. Lauder will also be among the speakers at the ceremony.

A 100-strong WJC delegation will be in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv next week to take in commemorations on the 75th anniversary of the slaughter of more than 33,000 Jews by Nazi Germany at the Babi Yar ravine in 1941.

WJC President Ronald S. Lauder called Jutta Limbach, Germany’s former chief justice and a long-time head of the Goethe Institute who passed away at the age of 82, a "formidable and strong-willed woman who helped to enhance her country's reputation."

As the World Jewish Congress prepared to mark its 80th anniversary, President Ronald S. Lauder said that the very existence of the WJC keeps the situation for Jews around the world from deteriorating to the level of pre-Holocaust Germany.

WJC President Ronald S. Lauder has hailed Pope Francis’ upcoming visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau as “a strong signal” against hatred and called the Catholic Church leader “one of the closest ally Jews have today in the fight against anti-Semitism."

Ronald S. Lauder on Tuesday issued a strong condemnation of the ISIS-inspired terrorist attack at a church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, calling it “a monstrous and evil act of murder committed against innocent people inside a house of worship.”

He gave me the courage to speak out on behalf of world Jewry. He inspired me to stand up for Israel, its people, its rights, its security. Everything I do today is because of the example Elie set for me, and for the world.

At least 41 people were killed and more than 239 injured at Atatürk Airport in Istanbul, the country’s main airport, in a terrorist attack on Tuesday evening. Turkey suspects ISIS of carrying out the suicide bombings.

WATCH: The president of the World Jewish Congress on Sunday addressed the Board of Deputies of British Jews and warned of a growing tide of hatred and terror targeted against Jews and others, including in Britain.

The Ingeborg Rennert Center for Jerusalem Studies of Israel’s Bar-Ilan University honored WJC President Lauder with the Guardian of Zion Award for his efforts in the perpetuation and strengthening of Jerusalem.

Thousands of personal items that belonged to Jews killed at Auschwitz were discovered the same week that three US senators, an Academy Award-winning actress, and the president of the World Jewish Congress said it's a "moral duty" to ensure Holocaust victims' families can recover art stolen from them during World War II.

“Make no mistake. The BDS movement doesn’t support the Palestinian people. It is strictly a campaign to delegitimize Israel, which is simply the latest attempt to deny the Jewish people their right to self-determination. Every other people on earth have that right, but BDS wants to deny that basic right to Jews,” declared Lauder. The WJC president pledged that the World Jewish Congress “will commit all of our resources, and all of our abilities, to help fight BDS."

More than 1,500 people took part in a conference at UN Headquarters in New York on Tuesday, focusing on combating diplomatic attacks against the State of Israel and the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.

A convicted German neo-Nazi who owns a publishing house has announced that he will re-publish Adolf Hitler’s ‘Mein Kampf’. Meanwhile, the annotated edition of Hitler's book has become a bestseller in Germany.

In a broad-ranging interview, the WJC president weighs in on anti-Semitism in Europe, the dimming connection between Israel and young American Jews, the upcoming US presidential elections and the future of world Jewry.

At the commemoration of the 500th anniversary of the establishment of first Jewish ghetto in Venice, Italy, WJC President Ronald Lauder praised Jewish resilience in the face of adversity and anti-Semitism.

WJC President Ronald S. Lauder hailed the decision of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia to convict former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic for genocide and crimes against humanity committed during the Yugoslav Civil War in the 1990s.

“I commend Recep Tayyip Erdogan for showing full cooperation with the Israeli authorities in the aftermath of this horrendous attack. This is the way forward: cooperation, not confrontation. We have a common enemy, and we must defeat it," says WJC President Lauder.

In a special video message to the delegates from Jewish communities in 67 countries assembled in Buenos Aires, Israel's Prime Minister Netanyahu said the WJC was Israel's partner in fighting hatred of Jews.

World Jewish Congress President Ronald S. Lauder on Tuesday welcomed Argentine President Mauricio Macri at a gathering of more than 400 Jewish leaders from around the world and told him "We trust you."

A 94-year-old former Auschwitz guard went on trial in Germany Thursday accused of being an accessory to the murder of 170,000 people at the former death camp. WJC President Ronald Lauder: "It's important that these trials are taking place."

Two former SS men will go on trial this month in Germany. WJC President Ronald Lauder told AFP that "as long as it's possible to bring any of them to justice, it must be done. There is no statute of limitation for mass murder, and there shouldn't be."

Ronald S. Lauder, the president of the World Jewish Congress, said that the dispute was significant because "this case could not be more clear-cut: The painting was stolen from the Jaffé family and it should be returned."

WJC partners with UN to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day / Ronald Lauder: "It's incumbent upon the world to ensure that the atrocities that befell the Jewish people during World War II are never repeated."

"There are very few people in today’s world who have the courage and the temerity to speak out when they see injustice. George was one of them," said Ronald Lauder about the British publisher who died on Tuesday.

Ronald Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress, says it’s “absurd” to re-release Mein Kampf now. "It’s a hateful, racist, anti-Semitic book, and why they would allow it to be republished is beyond me."

World Jewish Congress President Ronald S. Lauder said the results of the German task force to investigate if any art works in the Cornelius Gurlitt trove had been looted by the Nazis were “meager and not satisfactory.”

A senior US State Department official on Sunday took part in a protest in Hungary against plans to erect a statue of Bálint Hóman, a World War II-era Hungarian government minister who initiated anti-Jewish laws.

Reuven Rivlin, Ronald S. Lauder and Israel's ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, lit the last candles of Hanukkah at an event in New York on Sunday along with diplomats and officials in the Jewish community.

The chair of the Commonwealth Jewish Council, Lord Mendelsohn, welcomed Ronald Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress, to talk about tackling anti-Semitism, the Middle East and building a stronger relationship.

WJC President Ronald S. Lauder addressed a conference of the African Jewish Congress in Johannesburg where Jewish community leaders of Botswana, Kenya, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe were present.

Lauder praises US President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for taking the opportunity to strengthen US-Israel alliance. “A strong US-Israeli relationship is critical for Israel and for Jews around the world,” says Lauder.

Ronald Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress, still believes a peace deal is possible. But while two states, side by side, is the best formula for peace, it is hard to see that happening under Netanyahu and Abbas.

WJC President Ronald S. Lauder warned UNESCO against exacerbating tensions in Israel by adopting a Palestinian-sponsored resolution that declares the Western Wall in Jerusalem part of the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Following dozens of stabbing and shooting attacks against Israelis, WJC President Ronald S. Lauder urged Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas to “show statesmanship before it’s too late” and to help end the incitement to terror.

World Jewish Congress President Ronald S. Lauder expressed concern that a rising tide of Palestinian terror was underway, after a day of violence saw at least three suspected terrorist attacks against Israeli Jews.

The World Jewish Congress welcomed the publication by French publisher Flammarion of Nazi leader Hermann Göring's catalogue of more than 1,750 works of art looted by the Nazis from Jews and others during World War II.

The World Jewish Congress hailed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Neyanyahu’s call at the United Nations for the Palestinians to return to the negotiating table and praised Netanyahu’s remarks that Israel and Arab states are cooperating against radical Islam.

The WJC urged Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to reconsider his announcement at the UN that he no longer feels bound by the 1994 Oslo Peace Accords and criticized his remarks as a “setback for the peace process.”

At their meeting in New York on Friday, the WJC President Lauder praised Colombian President Santos for achieving a breakthrough in peace talks between the Colombian government and the rebel guerrilla group FARC.

The Jewish groups hailed the statement by the organizers of the Rototom Sunsplash festival in Spain in which they apologized to the American Jewish singer and re-invited him to play his gig later this week.

World Jewish Congress President Ronald Lauder expressed “outrage” and “utter bewilderment” on Sunday at news that a music festival in Spain had disinvited an American Jewish musician for failing to sign a pro-Palestinian declaration.

The World Jewish Congress mourns the passing of our beloved friend and esteemed colleague Charles A. Goldstein, counsel to the Commission on Art Recovery and longtime adviser to WJC President Ronald S. Lauder.

World Jewish Congress President Ronald S. Lauder told Jewish athletes competing in the European Maccabi Games Tuesday that the global Jewish athletic competition at Berlin’s Olympic Park, which was built by the Nazis for the 1936 Olympic Games, represented “a triumph of good over evil.”

Ronald Lauder: "Oskar Gröning was only a small cog in the Nazis’ death machine, but without the actions of people like him, the mass murder of millions of Jews and others would not have been possible."

Ronald S. Lauder: "Srebrenica should have been a defining moment for the international community. However, given the events we are witnessing today in so many places, I am wondering if the world has really learnt the lessons."

WJC: “Bálint Homan was an emblematic figure in the humiliation and deportation of Hungarian Jews. He was an anti-Semite who does not deserve to be honored, and doing so would insult the victims of the Holocaust."

World Jewish Congress President Ronald S. Lauder presented actress Helen Mirren with the WJC Recognition Award for her role in the movie ‘Woman in Gold’ at a special event at the Neue Galerie in New York.

“The UN has gone too far,” declared World Jewish Congress President Ronald S. Lauder after a UN committee voted to grant NGO status to the Palestinian Return Center, a group with apparent ties to Hamas.

A conference in Geneva on 28 April will look at the role of the ICRC during the Holocaust and provide a forward-looking perspective on the international community's efforts to protect civilians and prevent atrocities.

The head of Hungary’s far-right Jobbik party said Monday he would “prune” racist views from the organization and become the main challenger of Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s Fidesz party in the 2018 elections.

World Jewish Congress President Ronald Lauder strongly denounced anti-Semitism and criticized Hungary’s far-right Jobbik party in his address in front of thousands at this year’s March of the Living in Budapest.

In testimony before a US Congressional committee, WJC President Lauder warned that radical Islam was fueling the flames of a new anti-Semitism and criticized the US for failing to lead the fight to extinguish the threat.

Leaders of the World Jewish Congress will meet in Washington, DC next week and also testify at a hearing on the rise of anti-Semitism across Europe next Tuesday organized by a subcommittee of the US House of Representatives